Our fanbase and recruiting

Well, Rich got ripped a new one a few weeks ago by some who objected to his suggestion that the negativity in our fanbase was hurting us on the recruiting trail. Well, I certainly wouldn't think it has helped us here... Bye Dee, would have loved to see you share a backfield with Denard.

I do think that the original problem traces back to the fanbase. Who is clamoring for change? Who is starting 100 threads about Jim Harbaugh or Stanford. Dave Brandon hasn't said a single thing about Stanford or Harbaugh to date. Were our fanbase not clamoring for RR's head on a platter, it would likely be much easier to cite improvement and retain him. While all evidence suggests that Brandon hasn't handled the situation well, you cannot make the situation independent of how pathetically spoiled our fanbase has acted this season.

No, the original problem is that Rich Rodriguez has gone 15-21 overall, 6-18 in the Big Ten, 0-3 against OSU, 0-3 against MSU, and 0-3 against PSU. Just about every non-Michigan fan I know thinks we'd be crazy to keep him. Most of the media essentially thinks the same way. Many of our former players want him gone, too. The notion that the fans somehow created a controversy out of nothing is absurd.

We are rebuilding! Of course his record isn't going to be that great yet. The fanbase is acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. Citing only the record without seeing the youth on this team is just dumb.

Sure there are many uninformed fans that are unhappy because of the record but there are also many people who have never embraced RR from day one. It makes our fanbase look completely terrible. Comparing the Michigan fanbase to the Notre Dame fanbase is incredibly accurate at this point. Very depressing....

I am a life long Michigan fan and recently a season ticket holder. I am discusted and angered at our fan base. Jmblue, you are the problem, not the solution. Why in the world would any recruit want to come and play with all the rediculous negitivity surrounding the program that has been created by a clueless fan base. The recruits we have commited want to play for the current coaching staff in place, why in the hell would you be surprised that any of them would decommit when so many of you tear the coaching staff down daily. I dont give a flying rip about the numbers. We are on the right track! But all you haters want to start over from square one with a new system and a new coach and new types of players. You people are idiots and are only digging us a bigger hole. Jim Harbaugh is not a savior and you people are crazy if you think all these Stanford recruits are going to follow him here. We all thought that the season would end around 7-5 with the talent we had. So why now are we so flipping surprised at the outcome? I hate to tell you folks this but MSU, OSU and Wisconsin were very very good this year and they all had productive seniors. We had almost no seniors but we will soon if our fan base doesnt run them off. I am sooo pissed that the very thing I love most is being destroyed from the inside out. Support the coaches and the team or get the hell out! We are on the verge of something great if some of you don't destroy it.

" The critic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing "

Stop blaming Dave Brandon for where our program is today. He inherited the entire athletic department only a few months ago and now he is assessing the state of our football program right now. I haven't been a huge RR fan as of late but I do think DB should consider every relevant detail of the football program before making a rash, uninformed decision.

No, that's not what's been said. If Dee Hart is going to stay committed to Michigan, even if RR were to get fired, then DB's decision to evaluate after a bowl game wouldn't matter. If Dee Hart is concerned about job status, then yes, a perceived uncertainty will negatively impact our chances.

All that said, I still don't necessarily blame DB, he's a former CEO, he's been on the football team, and he offers a unique perspective (Far superior to any of us.)

I guess it's hard for us fans to understand what type of decision DB has to make right now. We're living and dying by the day, and sometimes minutes, with new news regarding our team. I would imagine DB instead is much more focused on the next 5, 10, 20 years of our program. Regardless of who our coach is, I just hope this decision helps to lay a solid foundation for our program for years to come.

I will go out on a limb and say that he is screwing this up big time!! He is not 100% to blame, but he's getting there. The problem is people that want RR fired will say that he is not recruiting top talent. Players will not commit to this team unless they know who the coach is. Plus D. Hart was enrolling early so he need to know sooner than later.=. DB saying that this wait will not affect recruiting is borderline ignorant.. it will have a huge affect on recruiting especially early enrollees

Now I'm just defending DB. But he essentially said that there is no good or bad time to make a coaching switch with regards to recruiting. A lot of people took that out of context and believe that DB doesn't think there is a bad time to make the decision and as a result recruiting won't be affected. That simply isn't true.

I am not sure exactly why Dee Hart is going to decommit, but my point is that it likely has more to do with uncertainty in the head coaching position than anything the fans have done. Dee Hart may have decommitted because he thinks Ingram is going pro, or two ugly losses down the stretch made him think twice.

That said, I do suspect that Brandon sees decommittments, the inevitable transfers, etc., as acceptable losses necessary to change direction of the program. If that's true, I am not sure he's handling the transistion particularly well, and I disagree that it's needed in the first instance.

Stayed out of the fracas tonight for exactly this reason. All we have are a bunch of sources saying he's likely to decommit and commit to Alabama tomorrow. No reasons given although I'm sure they'll be forthcoming.

No point speculating on who's at fault (if anyone is) until he speaks. For all we know, he decided he preferred warm weather and being with his friend.

No, what I am suggesting is that fans of Michigan start acting like fans and support the TEAM. Enough of the entitlement. Stop pretending you have a say or that your opinion counts. The level of personal attacks that some Michigan fans have stooped to make me embarrassed to even be associated with them.

Seriously. I sometimes feel like saying F this fanbase. More than half of them have no idea what the hell is going and are becoming the most fairweather fans in the world. I would love more than anything to see RR succeed royally and just shove it up the RR haters ass. That said Go Blue.

I say F are fanbase every home game!! We have 112,000 fans at a game, more then half are stuck up alumni, sippin coffee, talking to there friend about the LOUD guy a few rows back, nd checking there 401k in the middle of a tight game, when the house should be rocking!!! If your mad at me for this, them im probaly talking to you

If Dee Hart decommits it's not because of a bunch of fat losers on a blog, it's because the team sucks and can't be competitive with good teams. He doesn't need us to tell him that he can watch us get our ass beat EVERY SATURDAY ON TV. Unless we're playing Purdue, then he'll see us squeak out a win against a horrendous team.

This is exactly when it sucks that I am old and have no computer skills. I keep seeing the Will Farrell scene in Wedding Crashers (I think) where he is yelling fo Ma to bring him food. Would love to insert it here.

there is a virus on your computer where ignorant mind numbing dribble is posted in your name. What a shame, I am sure there is an intelligent, thoughtful, and descent human being that has no idea this garbage keeps popping up.

This has no legs at all.. you don't think he has been watching MIchigan for the last 2 years? We had a worse record last year and he stil committed.. I dont think the record was the problem at all. He knew what he was getting into initially.. He knew it is cold in michigan.. none of this is new info to him.

Did Hart actually decommit? Because that would be news to me. I am as reactionary as anyone, but this is a rumor with some legs but not a foregone conclusion. It doesn't sound like anyone other than Dee knows what his announcement will be tomorrow, and right now over-analyzing and assigning blame it is just foolish. I agree that this fanbase does go into a tizzy rather quickly, but I'm sure that it true everywhere else. Heck, TWIS thrives on this type of behavior.

Somehow I think not being competitive in big games and melting down in the second half of the season AGAIN combined with the job status limbo of the coaching staff has far more to do with the decommit than fanbase rumbling which happens at every big-time program. I think we need to sit back and get over ourselves a bit.

Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order because it is better organized.

There's no question the negativity has hurt our recruiting, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Fans have complained that RR recruiting focus has been too offensive. While some have presented viable points I don't think it's true. The fact is that more offensive studs were willing to take a leap of faith to play in RR's genius system. Top-tier defensive recruits haven't had as great of a risk vs reward scenario with UM. Considering the fact that many "fans" were calling for his head 3 games into season 1, I think RR's point is correct.

How do you think it helps the defensive recruiting when you have a coach who acts indifferent to defense? He said a few weeks ago that he "checks in" and that 98 percent of his time or some huge number is spent on offense.

Rodriguez comes across as lame and unaccountable when he bashes fans on the recruiting. Give the fan base at large a reason to feel excited and the negativity will cool down. 7-5 with a series of narrow wins over also rans like Indiana, UMASS and Purdue and nothing else, isn't going to do it. This is a demanding fan base.

This board is a very small sample of a much larger group that is way past dissatisfied.

“First, understanding what their intent is, what our team’s intent is going to be. You’ve got to be willing to work for that. You’ve got to be willing to earn that..." 12-30-2014

7-5 with a series of narrow wins over also rans like Indiana, UMASS and Purdue and nothing else, isn't going to do it.

I might have worded it a little differently. For example. You could also say 7-5 with three victories agains bowl eligible teams and three losses against teams ranked in the top 8 of the BCS.

Purdue and Indiana might be "also rans," but there probably aren't too many jackasses in the Iowa fan base complaining about their narrow victory over Indiana or in the MSU fan base complaining about their game against Purdue at home that looked to be a sure loss until a series of mistakes by the Boilermakers late in the 4th doomed the upset bid.

So be a dick if you want. But leaving the program under this cloud is a horrible move for this teams and staffs future. It doesn't help anything. Only makes what has been a hard job even harder. Having kids who want to commit in doubt is proof in that pudding. Call DB the messiah if you want but I see nothing so far that is helping this football team that wasn't already being done/set in motion before he arrived.

I guess I have to put them in some grand order for it to be ok with you if I express my opinion. Get over yourself. I'm not carried away. Its how I feel. Ooooh so sorry I didn't say it the way you think I should have. I didn't know saying an opinion on here had to be checked by you. But since I am so short sighted I guess thinking Dave Brandon is making a mistake that I see as a very large one means I need your input. And things won't look better in the morning when it comes to my feelings towards Michigan football. They aren't going to be better until all this speculation is over.

When did DB say he was pressured for change? If I recall, he was pretty adamant that it was his decision and that he was the only one qualified to make it, given that everyone else had 5% of the information.

This is the only scenario that makes sense. To keep RR but leave him dangling in the media so that he loses many of his prize recruits is simply too foolish a strategy to be attributed to DB. I really feel for Rich in all this, and tonight's speech sounds to me like the words of a man who is facing a major rejection. If this is true, it really bums me out that we will never see what RR's offense would do next year, and also that this approach is uncaring towards him as a person. But DB may think of Harbaugh as someone who will unify our community (once the dust has cleared) and carry forward the tradition for another twenty years. I would think that it is the long-term rather than the present that is really on DB's mind.

"We will do our very best to carry on the Michigan tradition of excellence... And what I ask is that everyone that's for us is for us." Michigan Football Coach Jim Harbaugh

Guys, you know that maybe it's possible that Alabama turned up the heat on Dee and convinced him to go to Bama? Sure the indecision may have hurt, but it sounds like this is more of Alabama winning a recruit then us losing a recruit.

At least we picked up Justice Hayes. You never want to lose any Hart, but you KNOW that Hayes will be able to LAY DOWN THE LAW. Or that Hayes will POUND THE GAVEL. 4 Years of fun with a first name like Justice. "JUSTICE SENDING THE SAFETY TO A SENTENCE OF 25 TO LIFE YARDS!"

The 415 replies to the Dee Hart rumor thread is a bit, how do I say this, insane.

Dee seems like a good guy with a good head on his shoulders. He will make the decision that is best for him. I hope he ends up at Michigan but who knows.

But to see huge chunks of fanbases hanging on every word and whim of 17-18 year olds that aren't even on the team yet is slightly disturbing. I like seeing Hello:_____ posts too but I dont live or die based on recruits. There was one post where a dude said he was breathing into a paper bag while typing because of the rumor. Seriously man?

I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. -Mahatma Gandhi

Can anyone blame a young man from not going to Michigan because of the fanbase? I'm 19 right now. I sure know that if I were being recruited for football, I wouldn't want to go to a school where all my "fans" are constantly criticizing the coaches, players, administration.

Being a Division 1 athelete isn't easy in any aspect; mentally, physically, emotionally, etc. We as the fans can heavily effect the mental aspect of a player. I know I certainly would not feel comfortable knowing the 110,000 people I play infront of every Saturday are scrutinizing every little thing that happens.

Of course, maybe none of this happens. After all, I'm not a Division 1 athlete. With the current day we're in though with social networking, the fanbase definitely has some impact. I can only hope we aren't making the team worse. Remember Bo: No man is more important than the team. We are part of the team. When we are divided and not buying into the system, we fail the team.

This is the point in time when I'm just really, really glad I put absolutely zero energy into following recruiting. I just can't get emotionally wrapped up in 17 year old high school kids, because let's be honest, we all couldn't make a decision about what to eat for lunch at that age without changing our minds 5 times.

next do we blame us, the fans, for not beating msu, osu at all the last three years? no winning is everything. think about it, you win and there's no need for blame or excuses. if were winning more, then recruiting becomes easier and places like bama wont lure away players like dee. not saying bama is better then us what so ever. its just frustrating to think powers so high up could place any blame on the blog world or the fans for their opinions. its sports and their will always be peoples opinions.

I don't think the anti-RR is just in the fanbase, but is also spread by the MSM. I listened to an XM radio show, hosted by a ND fan the evening of our lost to tOSU. The host kept saying that RR is for sure gone, no questions by Monday. No mention that Brandon had said to wait until after the bowl game. He had no inside information, just hate for the program. It is idiots like this that keep spreading the hate.